[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by Ketan T

I am going to South Goa from Pune via Chorla on 26th too. Hopefully there is no flooding on the highway or in Belgaum city.

Hey please do update the road conditions especially Pune - Satara. I am going on the 30th morning. Skeptical about the Pune traffic as it would be a working day and I shall reach Talegaon by 8:30 am. Any idea Pune guys if it would be jammed towards Pune at that time?

[dashoin]

I have been following this thread keenly, discussed the route with anyone remotely connected with Konkan / Belgaum and became a regular visitor to the Accuweather, IMD and IMD Goa websites. All thanks to booking a hotel and announcing to the kids that we would be going to Goa for a break before checking the weather. I forgot that if the weather was bad in Pune, it would not have been much better in Goa.

So here's my contribution to the confusion:

I covered the Pune - Belgaum stretch today in my Ciaz AT. The biggest potholes (craters would be more accurate) were at the four diversions. We started at 0530 and took the exit to Belgaum at approx 1245.
The first diversion was slightly better off than the other three. The potholes required a lot of care - I followed the local tempos with the assumption that they would follow the path which was manageable.

We had some pretty heavy showers for a 5 km stretch before Belgaum. There are a couple of lakes (?) near Belgaum ( Sankeshwar?) on the highway with pretty high water levels. I guess a sustained heavy downpour could result in flooding on the bridges.

An early start and a non-stop drive till the Wai turn ensured that we missed most of the traffic. Road conditions are OK and good from Satara onwards.

I would be leaving for Goa tomorrow morning with the Chorla that route and would post an update tomorrow. My biggest concern is that Accuweather has predicted flooding in Calangute and my hotel has open parking close to the beach. Any pointers on how to tie the car down?

[comfortablynumb]

Did Pune to Belgaum yesterday, and Belgaum to Goa (Varca) today.

Started from Pune at 13:30 & reached Belgaum at 19:00. Pune to Shirwal is pathetic, with several diversions filled with deep potholes. Drive carefully on those. Shirwal to Satara is average with no diversions, but still a lot of broken patches. Post Satara, road is good right till Belgaum.

Belgaum to Goa via Chorla is a mixed bag. Started from Belgaum at 07:30 and reached Varca at 13:00, with a detour to Bicholim on the way. Till Goa border (just after the Delta restaurant), road is decent, with the odd potholed patch. After crossing into Goa, the road condition deteriorates a lot, with lots of potholes right till the ghat ends. Drive carefully, specially on the curves.

Those traveling to South Goa and planning to take the route via Borim bridge, please budget for an additional 30 to 45 mins, as it is being repaired, and traffic from only 1 side is allowed alternately for 15 mins at a time.

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by dashoin

Any pointers on how to tie the car down?

A Maruti in the sea won't look good. Already they have flooded the Indian roadways and now not the waterways too please

Chorla isnt in a very good shape. Be careful and drive safe.

How was the Pune - Satara stretch? I heard the bridge construction there is a pain and diversions are with pothole laden roads.

[ishan12]

Originally Posted by dashoin

I covered the Pune - Belgaum stretch today in my Ciaz AT. The biggest potholes (craters would be more accurate) were at the four diversions. We started at 0530 and took the exit to Belgaum at approx 1245.

Why did you not take the Nippani- Swantwadi route? I did Goa on the Gandhi jayanti weekend, and found the road to be far better than the previous 2 years around the same time. (Except for the flyover construction work upto Satara)

[VPJ74]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

Hey please do update the road conditions especially Pune - Satara. I am going on the 30th morning. Skeptical about the Pune traffic as it would be a working day and I shall reach Talegaon by 8:30 am. Any idea Pune guys if it would be jammed towards Pune at that time?

You must have got plenty of expert advice on the roads buddy but let me give you some refueling suggestions.. fuel for your belly.

You must try to stop in Kolhapur and refuel 😜 especially if you like mutton. Do message me if you want suggestions ..

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by VPJ74

You must have got plenty of expert advice on the roads buddy but let me give you some refueling suggestions.. fuel for your belly.

You must try to stop in Kolhapur and refuel 😜 especially if you like mutton. Do message me if you want suggestions ..

Thanks man. Padma house been my favorite.
Have moved on from Food Porn now. It shows on the cheeks

Trying to reduce so that I don't have issues driving for long.

[manish_symc]

I am in Goa this week. I came from Pune via Amboli. Around 15kms stretch after Nippani is in bad condition. Road after Sawantwadi to Goa are also in bad conditions due to highway widening work.

[dashoin]

Originally Posted by ishan12

Why did you not take the Nippani- Swantwadi route?

There was a lot of uncertainty around the time required in the Pune to Satara / Kolhapur section. A friend travelling by bus had mentioned delays of about 2 - 3 hours as it had rained. The weather forecast indicated heavy rain in the Konkan area and a friend confirmed the same for this route.

We were lucky not to be caught in traffic or face water logging today. I just wanted to avoid being in the ghats in heavy rain and fading light.

[dashoin]

MODS - Could you please merge this post with my last post.

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

How was the Pune - Satara stretch?

The roads were manageable, the diversions took most of the time. An early start ensured that there was considerably less traffic at that hour. I trailed behind a MSRTC bus from Katraj and followed his cues - the driver knew the route and potholes pretty well. I was able to keep a speed of about 50 kmph on the roads - thanks to the rains and the excellent() low beams of the Ciaz.
For the diversions, it was the local tempo guys - they know the easiest route. I was able to get through all without a scrape. Each diversion took at least 7-8 minutes to clear. I did not stop for a break till all four diversions were done and Satara had passed.

Another thing - a couple of toll plazas have a dedicated lane for Fastag. They check the tag before letting you in the lane. This saved some time for me.

[RJ2285]

Hi Guys,

I drove from Mumbai to South Goa - Varca on 22nd October with my wife and my 4.5 year old daughter. ( 2016 Honda City I-vtec MT) We hit the road at 5am in the morning. The plan was to reach goa via Belgaum through Chorla Ghat.

Pune- Satara stretch was fine with minimal traffic. However the 4 diversions were bad. Deep potholes, actually you can call them ‘WELLS”.

We took a 1 hour lunch break at Sai Pangat(Sai International) 35kms before Kolhapur at 12pm. We got a lot of traffic while driving through Belgaum city. The major challenge started and the averge speed dropped tremendously when we started driving through Chorla Ghat. Road conditions, especially hairpin bends were very bad with very big potholes created by big trucks and trailers. Average speed dropped to 20-30kmph.

At around 6pm while driving through this patch, I saw a very big pothole and to avoid that I took the car to the other side only to realise that there was a similar pothole on the other side too. We were at a speed of 30kmph when we hit that pothole. Within seconds, my 2 month new MRF ZVTV tyre went flat.

At that point, we were right in the middle of Chorla Ghat/jungle. It was raining too. I tried changing tyres myself(1st time in my life) and was successful in removing the punctured tyre, however I could not replace the tyre as the jack would not turn after a point. It was getting dark and my wife was panicking as there was no mobile network. Also,every 2kms, there were boards stating “Beware of Leopards” which was playing on the back of my mind when I was removing the punctured tyre. I was drenched with the rains coming down heavily.

As and when I realised that I did my best and could not do more to get the car up to fit the replacement tyre, we tried to stop few cars who could help us with their jack. After 3-4 attempts, we managed to halt a car. (Husband- wife -3yr. Old daughter) They could not help us as my car jack had got jammed. With their support we managed to stop a truck seeking for help. The truck drivers were drunk which got me worried, but they helped us in replacing the tyre and used their tools to turn the jack and helped us with replacing the tyre. After all the effort they refused to take money and by the time they replaced the tyre it was 6:45pm and was pitch dark. On a lighter note, my wife kept chanting the hanuman Chalisa till we completed the chorla stretch as we encountered more and more fierce potholes.

After that incident, we could not afford another tyre puncture and we drove at 40kmph till the Ghat stretch was over and we finally reached varca at 9pm.

I have been doing road trips for the last 10 years and this was one big adventure. My wife does not want to do road trips any more and is worried as we have to take the same route back home in a few days. The only good thing that happened to us with God’s grace is that we fortunately got support from a good family and good truck drivers. Not sure, this will happen to us every time we face a similar situation.

My 2 cents - please drive slowly through potholes. If my 2 month old tyre can go flat, imagine what could happen to older tyres.

Take care and Drive Safe!

[dashoin]

Update on the Belgaum - Calangute route:

We started at 0820 and reached crossed old vehicle entry post at about 1030. There would be roughly about 15 potholes from Belgaum to the place where you have a signboard indicating the direction to Chorla. This includes about 3 places where a part of the road has broken off and slid down. I was able to keep speeds of about 40 ~ 50 kmph and nearly all the potholes were a surprise.

The real fun started after the board to the gate. There were pretty huge potholes and required careful and slow driving to get through without a scrape. Google maps was extremely helpful and took us through some scenic village roads that had no traffic. I missed a turn and nearly landed in the river. The upside of this was that we avoided all the potholes on the main highway. We finally reached the hotel at 1215.

The truck traffic is now using this route as the Khanapur - Londa - Ponda - Molem route 4 laning completion has been delayed. Himachal also sees a lot of road damage but you have crew working on getting the roads in shape almost immediately. A couple of years back there was news about a machine that could repair potholes during monsoons and I understand that the same is being used by the Pune Municipal Corporation. If this cant be done, an easier fix would be to just put in paver blocks or some construction debris to fill the pothole and wait for better weather. This would not be a perfect engineering solution but a stop gap arrangement till things get better. I do hope that they redo the entire stretch instead of just patching it over.

OT - I saw a lot of Nexon's and Harrier's on this route - are the sales in Goa for these vehicles high or that these owners were confident that they would get through due the GC?

We would be starting back this Sunday.

[manish_symc]

Originally Posted by manish_symc

I am in Goa this week. I came from Pune via Amboli. Around 15kms stretch after Nippani is in bad condition. Road after Sawantwadi to Goa are also in bad conditions due to highway widening work.

Just now we are back from a North Goa to Pune drive. We started in our Ecosport at 9.30AM and reached home at 7.30PM through the Sawantwadi -Amboli route. We took three breaks in between (total one hour approx). Luckily, we didn't get any traffic.

People who are travelling to/from Goa via the Amboli ghat, take Sawantwadi town route instead of the route which bypasses Sawantwadi. Bypass road is in bad condition. Also, drive slowly since there are many unexpected and big potholes on the Satara - Pune highway stretch.

[Sagarpradhan85]

Just returned from South Goa via Chorla.
I think there are very good posts capturing the status of roads above.

Quick notes to add-

Did the Pune-Kolhapur stretch on Saturday. Flyover work related diversions are painful and can take significant time. For details, each diversion can be (+10mins) on google maps.

Chorla ghat has some nasty potholes, so better drive slow

Borim bridge work is likely to be on, until the 31st October. It would be reasonable to add 30 mins to your journey due to delays on the bridge.

Potholes near Satara (15 odd kms stretch) are pretty bad and you need to be careful.

Originally Posted by RJ2285

Hi Guys,

I drove from Mumbai to South Goa - Varca on 22nd October with my wife and my 4.5 year old daughter. ( 2016 Honda City I-vtec MT) We hit the road at 5am in the morning. The plan was to reach goa via Belgaum through Chorla Ghat.

Pune- Satara stretch was fine with minimal traffic. However the 4 diversions were bad. Deep potholes, actually you can call them ‘WELLS”.

Very scary. I just came back from Goa via Chorla and can totally imagine the pothole issues.

Incidentally the MRF ZVTV on my Vento TSi developed a small bulge on the sidewall due to a pothole while enroute Kolhapur and did the entire Chorla stretch under some stress.
I did not want to open up my tire on an unknown tire walla and hence continued the journey on it

[RJ2285]

Originally Posted by Sagarpradhan85

Incidentally the MRF ZVTV on my Vento TSi developed a small bulge on the sidewall due to a pothole while enroute Kolhapur and did the entire Chorla stretch under some stress.
I did not want to open up my tire on an unknown tire walla and hence continued the journey on it

Ditto! When I was at a tyre shop at Varca to buy a new tyre, I observed the same, a small bulge on the sidewall- Front right side. Had to replace that tyre as well.

All in all I had to spend 12k to replace both tyres.